Nature of the Beast Poetry Drabbles
by MiniKoontzy
Summary: I decided as a kind of motivational assignment to write some poetry about Nature of the Beast characters, namely my fellas, but I'll probably expand out later. I've convinced myself that I can't write poetry thanks to past bad experiences with it, so this is a way of staring myself down and going "yes, you can." I'll leave it up to you reviewers to be the better judge. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: The Weighted Scale

**Nature of the Beast: Poetry**

Counterforce: The Weighted Scale

* * *

What is right  
and wrong?  
A loaded question asserts  
philosophy.  
Trigger words!  
shout coddled youth.  
No easy answer

Says I.

Weight depends  
on angles  
twisted and knotted up in opinion's roots.  
Data  
(that finest femme!)  
is rarely  
cited. There in all, oft  
unacknowledged.  
She suspends  
her baited _Pa'oua  
_ from mind-wires,  
whispering sweet knowings.

But bait is not taken  
by the wise.

Or

is it?

Wisdom is wizened by experience.

To see,  
Sightless,  
is blindness.

To act,  
Thoughtless,  
is idiocy.

A weighted scale.  
Countless weights.  
Some right.  
Some wrong.

More.

Less.

Rarely do opposites convene.  
My choice? Task?  
Choose,

or make them meet.

* * *

I did not mean to meet the Night  
I did not mean for love to bite  
But Night is soft and gentle, sweet  
where Light brings harsh and blinding heat.

Night fears bright Light that others trust,  
where I, dear fool, within combust  
at every silver, moon-kissed smirk  
she grants to me, her humble clerk.

Before each hunt she calls to me  
so I might hear her hopeful plea  
'I'm not afraid,' she says, 'not now  
The Night and I are One, somehow.'

Night has Her own pale silver gleam  
that heralds starlight's twinkling dream  
Beneath silk moons She slinks and soars  
without Light's warmth that Night abhors.

In cold she hunts whilst I, alone,  
pray for her health within my home.  
'Will she return from Night alive  
to feast on Light that's been deprived?'

Night may fear Light, but loves it too  
Her own light trapped in morning dew  
But I, alone, still hope, still pray  
that Light rise soon to chase Night away.

When comes the dawn's uprising burn  
My prayers grow still and life-force yearn  
for her to call and dash my fright  
that I cannot help her with my Light.

Oh, why must Light adore Night so  
when Night has not Light's warming glow?  
I am the mouse, and she, the Cat,  
who loves her so and won't fight back.

* * *

I Miss You

I miss you  
when you aren't there with me  
I miss you  
when your smile's gone  
I miss you  
when night arrives and keeps the gentle dawn

I miss you  
when I'm on the road  
I miss you  
when I'm safe at home  
I miss you  
when absorbed in thought or some lost ancient tome

I miss you

I miss you  
in the broad of day  
I miss you  
when you're on the grind  
I miss you  
when you hide yourself from those you seek to blind

I miss you  
when I see the stars  
I miss you  
when I sight the moons  
I miss you  
when wind and cloud weave on their silver looms

I miss you  
when you die at night  
I miss you  
when you howl at light  
I miss you  
when you disappear to stir up primal fright

I miss you

I miss you  
when you hear my calls  
I miss you  
when you tell your sins  
I miss you  
when the dark inside is allowed another win

I miss you  
when you're on the line  
I miss you  
when you don't respond  
I miss you  
when you're deaf to words  
concerned words so fond

I miss you  
when I like awake  
I miss you  
when my spark is fraught  
But I miss you no more when I see you smile  
and I see what I've long sought.


	2. Chapter 2: I Envy & The Luminal Chain

**Nature of the Beast**

Sentenza: I Envy/The Luminal Chain/Demonsong

* * *

I envy those privileged  
to admire night.  
I envy the star-gazer, who sees beyond time  
in the twinkling chorus arriving  
past death.  
I envy _niv'ytlo_ – night-dwellers  
relish her cool digits.  
She soothes hot mesh as ice  
soothes aching wounds.  
I envy the student, blasé to time  
enjoying life  
carried  
on high grade whiffs.

Fear mounts  
in her velvet embrace  
Will She  
escape her luminal chain?  
Dark.  
A fickle mistress, she  
brings only pain  
to me.

* * *

A Demon's chain snaps taught  
under your tender touch.  
But you  
You fear.  
You fight.  
A wild beast has manners more, and light,  
excessive,  
abhorred.  
Writhing Witch!  
Hissing Hollow!  
Screaming Sin!  
(more fitting names  
for you,  
dear Demon)  
Curses in tongue  
lost and found,  
spat in hate of his sweet  
caress.  
Light.  
A loyal servant, he  
brings sultry Promise

alone

to me.

* * *

* _MysticFire101 got inspired by the above pieces and wrote this. I did some minor editing in the realm of word choice, structure, and grammar, but otherwise this is hers. :)_

Stalker in moonless night,  
never fears,  
only fights.

Assassin of wrong,  
you sin,  
chilled clouds sound a swan-song.

Twist  
Slash  
Goodbye,  
Frame falls to Her fang,  
sinned life has faded where you lie.

Blade of wind,  
claws of dark,  
song of fury,  
eyes of spark.  
Steps of silence,  
wings of grace,  
moving with shadows,  
from place to place.

Kaon's Demon,  
fiend forged in ice,  
Brings nightmarish terror;  
extracts lofty price.

You run,  
you climb,  
you fly for your life,  
but the Demon will find you,

and put an end to strife.


	3. Chapter 3: Simple Kindness & Farewell

**Nature of the Beast**

Charity: Simple Kindness/Farewell

* _Little annoyed that the spacing on DA doesn't quite work here. Oh well. Pickers can't be choosers. If you want to see it with the spaces, check out my DeviantArt page._

* * *

Kindness need not  
be intricate.  
It need not be Mannerism's twisting maze,  
compass lacking needle.  
Instead a loving smile will do  
to warm a heckled, dreary frame.  
An easy road is Kindness, creation's silken lane.

Kindness need not be  
Speech's kaleidoscope hues.  
Kindness can be honeyed song, lyrical  
in flow and ebb.  
No finer _s'tmo_ or _ixtli_ matches.  
A tranquil string is Kindness, courier of tacit love.

Kindness need not be  
awkward, edgy touch.  
Fond embrace or modest brush of  
armor passing; a tap on life's hard casing.  
A Guardian's gentle touch is Kindness,  
spring-tender, summer warm and soft.

Kindness need not be  
harsh.  
Blunt.  
to sit  
to listen  
there lies Frustration's festering fallacy.  
A patient audial is Kindness,  
ever hearing a stranger's aches.

* * *

saying goodbye

is never easy

to lose what once was loved is

losing brush strokes on tapestries

hand-crafted with chronal paints

love's loss is not lessened

knowing songs heard in after

cannot be heard by now.

they dance

they sing

graceful, ghostly flutterings

unheard, unseen by

loss's longing glance

* * *

Lullaby of Eventide: (sung in 6/8 time)

 _We look to the days for our warmth and our hope  
to hold back the fear we all bear  
In the sunlight we find strength to endure  
all the trials of life that ensnare_

 _But the river of time never pauses to grant_  
 _our wish that light would never fade_  
 _The gold will soon flee from the kyanite sky_  
 _to paint the world in somber grey._

 _I sing to you now of that time in between_  
 _when aureate beams sink below,_  
 _I sing of the balance that eventide brings_  
 _and the beauty that darkness bestows._

 _In the grey of this twilight I sing to dispel_  
 _your fear of the oncoming dim_  
 _This silken ink sky you too will soon see_  
 _is never so dark or so grim._

 _Fear not the shadows that visit us now_  
 _they are formless and do you no harm_  
 _See how the world and the sky come alive_  
 _with light and with life and with charm._

 _See out in the forest how lanterns emerge_  
 _to dance in the gathering shade_  
 _They each light the darkness in blinking display_  
 _and drive slinking shadows away._

 _Up high in the velvet ignites stellar burn_  
 _joined by the moon's silver sheen_  
 _Such light may be faint,_  
 _but it's light all the same_  
 _protecting your soul as you sleep._

* * *

 _("Song of Storm and Sky")_ _ **  
**_

 _Hush now and hear  
a tale of two halves  
brought into union by cycles;  
E'er in their paths  
wheel these two parts  
never to hold their dominion_

 _Far from our wings_  
 _whirl the two halves_  
 _watching the children below them_  
 _Rarely to cross  
the paths they attend  
shared is the sky as they converge_

 _Sing of the sun_  
 _Sing of the moons_  
 _sing of the stars above_  
 _Sing of the dawn_  
 _Sing of the dusk_  
 _Sing of the balance our lights give  
_

 _ _Z'weol brings the day,  
__ _ _ _ _golden and bright  
burning away the cold storm-clouds  
_Though we adore  
its warm and kind rays  
time will soon force it to slumber___

 _ _Moons herald eve  
sweet and serene  
singing their welcome on crisp winds  
Small though their size  
no less is their glow  
city and plain turn to silver  
__

 _Sing of the sun_  
 _Sing of the moons_  
 _sing of the stars above_  
 _Sing of the dawn_  
 _Sing of the dusk_  
 _Sing of the balance our lights give  
_

 _E're and again  
the gleam above wanes  
_ _ousted by path or by frost pall  
_ _Veiled from our sight  
our gold and grey glows  
rare to be seen through the gloaming_

 _Chilled is the squall_  
 _Ebon the night_  
 _dour our lives without daybreak  
_ _Shudder you may  
at seeming un-end  
of gale and dark deluge around us  
_

 _Sing of the sun_  
 _Sing of the moons_  
 _Sing of the stars above_  
 _Sing of the dawn_  
 _Sing of the dusk_  
 _Sing of the balance the lights give  
_

 _Don't be afraid  
of shivering shades,  
my arms will hold you and keep you;  
as the moons wheel 'round  
as the storm howls  
I will be your star to warm by._ _ _  
__


	4. Chapter 4: A Painter's Purpose

**Nature of the Beast**

Zodiac: A Painter's Purpose/Starlight

* * *

A Painter's purpose is  
not to sing  
to masses, or  
to audiences who shun  
our heritage.  
We are composers  
who compose  
not alone to entertain  
but to widen minds  
hindered by narrow  
optics.

We sing to educate.  
We sing to debate,  
(no lance as lethal as lyrical quarrel)

We sing to praise.

A Painter's purpose is  
not to act  
out the playwright's writes.  
We wear no masks  
but lift them.  
Scenes; windows in  
life's nature.  
Phrases; glimpses of  
deepest desires, fears, loves, hates.  
Gestures; hints.

We act to show.  
Obscurity revealed.

We act to praise.

A Painter's purpose is  
not to paint on  
canvas, hologram, or airstream jetty.  
Art grasps meanings greater than mere aesthetic.  
A mountain vista holds more power  
than army marching to field.  
Wind – delicate brush, a hundred hues  
in every bristle.  
Calligraphy holds nuanced detail  
caught not first, but second, third, fourth,  
at last.

We paint to  
paint our world  
with meaning.

We paint to praise.

* * *

She is Wind  
Roaring gales sweeping over dome and desert  
never to stay.  
 _S'tmo_ and _kltin czev_ and _hoalren_  
never just one wind, always  
changing.  
Cold and warm, harsh and gentle, hot and dry,

A wild-winged wind ever roaming, ever rushing by  
Constant in her Inconstancy

She is Sky  
Star-speckled sky dotted on dulled wing,  
a bashful comet bolting  
from place to place,  
Zewoel's faint, burning rim hanging on horizon's cliff.

She is Starlight  
twinkling high above in burning shades  
too far to yield heat, but always  
shedding light, always softly  
singing.

Always there

Always

just out of reach.

Tempting the wanderer further.


	5. Chapter 5: Hound's Hymn

**Nature of the Beast**

Frostbite: Hound's Hymn

* _Note to Alexandra: there any way you can enable your private messaging system? I keep trying and it says you have pm'ing blocked or whatever._

* * *

Horns howl, stone-old, curling through ravine and mountain.  
The pack, eager, bounds to its muster  
out to flat field where skitter blest fountains  
in flocks and dancing clusters.  
A cry, a slip,  
the hunt begins.  
Apprentice sparks scamper and nip  
deaf to high-walled cries of "Sin!"

 _Lord of Beasts, Lord of Hounds!_  
 _Keep our senses sharp like rays_  
 _and guide our trackers, loyal, bound_  
 _so they may never lose their way._

The fringe-scouts whirl, snapping necks,  
and rending claws.  
Hunters dive to pin and peck  
opening canyons with stalactite jaws.

 _Lord of Beasts, Lord of Hounds!_  
 _Keep our senses sharp like rays_  
 _and guide our trackers, loyal, bound_  
 _so they may never lose their way._

A flash of blue, the hunt complete.  
Beasts are welcome to reap this bounty,  
prize laid low by savage, ancient fleet.  
Children dare't spoil our sacred prize.  
To waste our gifts, to break our creed  
results in brand, in exile, forever despised.  
No hunter may dare to howl loud their greed;  
No – greed is the blood in which we were baptized,  
a sin ever hanging and waiting to breed.

 _Lord of Beasts, Lord of Hounds!_  
 _Keep our senses sharp like rays_  
 _and guide our trackers, loyal, bound_  
 _so they may never lose their way._


	6. Chapter 6: In Here, In Now

Backdraft: Racing Fun/In Here, In Now/ Shifter's Oath

*Little experiments with different poem types*

* * *

To race  
through jam-packed roads  
laughing at the thunder,  
deaf to trouble and distant pain  
is fun.

* * *

 _A'almvi_ live in Here, in Now  
adhering to our humble vow.  
Not one regrets our choice, our past  
for such lost times are too downcast!  
We sing, we holler, we dance in streets  
to buoyant city-wide beats  
Comedians, hooligans, Samaritans all, who live

in Here, in Now.

Led into cell, blame not bad luck  
 _A'almvi_ see chance to prove our pluck  
to brighten lives as dull as pitch  
as we fall into our merry niche  
Ire melts at joke, at pun  
at comedic notes and fun  
We laugh with those who brought us there  
until they cannot stand our snare  
At dawn they beg for us to flee  
and so once more begin our spree  
Out in the air we dance, we spring  
among our brothers, sisters, all amassed, we cling

In Here, in Now.

* * *

"I solemnly swear that my mischief is managed."


	7. Chapter 7: Sum

Windstorm: Sum

* * *

We are all of us  
equations – x's and y's and z's,  
variables and values all adding  
to a whole.  
To be made of one value is to be  
Incomplete.  
 _x = ?_

X can be anything and nothing  
– a circuit left open.  
A letter, a variable alone, has no value until  
connected to others of its kind,  
in a wondrous chain of  
values.  
Removing a link will not always equal  
a negative,  
but adding a link is not always  
positive.  
Taken or attached, each link  
each trait – each value,  
it all determines  
the Sum.  
 _z + y - c = I am_

* * *

 _Note: I'll be adding another later, but semester's off to a rocky start thanks to Harvey so this is the most writing I've managed this week.  
_


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